The God War Part 5
The Namikaze use their chakra differently than other shinobi. When they are around each other, they exchange chakra evenly until everyone has the same amount of chakra. This is unconscious. The children learn to do it as soon as they can understand. It causes a few problems, mostly making it difficult for children to sleep away from the clan, but the problem fades with age. When they are around others, they take a slight amount of chakra from everyone they meet but since the other person does not exchange their chakra, the process ends there.
Tsunade is 17
(-)
Sakumo hurried towards the hospital, curiosity overwhelming him about what could harm a man his best efforts probably could not even touch. The medics let him through with grumbled complaint when he held out the message scroll. In the small section of the hospital reserved for foreign individuals, Sakumo found the bedraggled clan kneeling in a small circle, holding the same pose in which he often saw Minato meditating. Medics periodically rushed in and out of one of the rooms. Standing just inside the door, he watched the exchange of chakra between the clan members, fascinated by the possibility of such an act. After a minute, a young woman extracted herself from the exchange to march up in front of Sakumo, snapping her fingers in front of his face to capture his attention.
"Do you need something shinobi-san or are you only here to gawk at us?"
"I am Hatake Sakumo, my Hokage asked me to deliver this to you," He held out the scroll and she took it warily.
"You are the Sakumo who has been taking care of my son?"
"You're Minato's mother?"
"Namikaze Kotone," She held out a hand. Against his instincts, Sakumo shook it politely. "I thank you for watching over my son these past few weeks. Minato has never been outside of the village before and doesn't know how to act around others. I hope he hasn't been too much trouble. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask, Hatake-san," She took a step back, inviting him into the room while opening the scroll and reading it carefully.
"How is Masao-san?"
"Not good, but hopefully he will recover in time. They told me the best medic in Konoha was doing all she could."
Any halfway decent shinobi Sakumo knew would have demanded a reason for his query before answering. Kotone smiled in response to his confused look.
"We really do seek shelter in Konoha, Sakumo-san, and withholding information you can easily gain with or without my permission is a poor way to show our desire to cooperate."
"How did you know what I was thinking?"
"Every member of my clan is at least comparable to your level of genius."
"That's not a straight answer."
Kotone smiled slightly, "Masao commented on you being an exceptional shinobi, specifically a frontline fighter, so the best conclusion would be you would evaluate me on my abilities as a shinobi before my motives for doing so. An individual such as yourself would question my ability as a shinobi in relation to my ability to operate on which you would imagine as enemy territory. Your confusion began when I shared information without question. When you made no inclination to verify my report, the only conclusion I could make would be you did not expect me to hand over any information. Is that a straight enough answer?"
"I can see why Minato is so difficult to predict."
Kotone's expression turned worried. "I really hope he didn't cause trouble."
"He did, but it was nothing in comparison to the trouble our other children cause."
"I'm not sure how to react to that. Either way, your Hokage asked to see our leader at our convenience. We have no official chain of command but until we do, I've been chosen as spokesperson. If it's convenient for you, I can speak to your Hokage now, if you would be so kind to show me to his office. I may have infiltrated this village before, but I've never been to your Hokage tower."
Sakumo flinched at the thought of holes in their village security. "How did you get in?"
"In broad daylight through one of your side gate and disguised as a beggar," She replied readily and motioned towards the door.
Sakumo frowned but led her back through the hospital and out onto the streets. When he looked back, he noticed none of her clan accompanying. "You didn't bring any of your clan members to protect you?"
"Do I need to be protected from your village?"
"Not as of now."
"Then I see no reason to bring anyone along. My clan members need rest above all else, something they cannot afford until we are assured safety in your village."
The woman walked confidently behind him, her hands swinging naturally by her sides. Sakumo expected her to be closed off and tense whenever a shinobi walked past, but she showed no tension or mistrust as she smiled lightly at anyone who met her eye.
The Shinobi guarding the Hokage tower allowed them past without question.
"There is little security here," she commented as they entered the building.
"Our Kage is here, there is no need for tight security."
"You little brat!" Jiraiya's voice boomed above them.
Kotone flinched at the volume.
"And that's Jiraiya." Sakumo led the woman up the stairs and towards the door to the Hokage's office.
"Ka-san!" Minato shrieked and a blur of yellow hair rushed out the door. Sakumo barely managed to dodge out of the way as Minato rushed towards his mother.
She crouched down and wrapped the boy in a crushing hug as he started talking faster than Sakumo believed possible before his mother could return the greeting.
"Mina-chan!" Kotone interrupted sharply. The boy stopped chattering immediately. "I'll be happy to listen to you, but not until later."
Minato opened his mouth to protest as Kotone stood up with him on her hip.
"I have a very important job to do and you have to be quiet until I'm done, understood?"
"Understood," Minato echoed and wrapped his arms around her neck, burying his face in her hair.
She gestured for Sakumo to continue leading. A red-faced Jiraiya gawked and pointed as she walked through the door.
"You know that wicked little bastard!" He squawked.
"He's my son and I can assure you that he is a legitimate child," Kotone responded coldly. "I'm not aware of how you were brought up, boy, but I'll tell you this once, do not curse in front on my son."
"I'm older than you and one of the Legendary Sannin! It's 'Jiraiya-sama' to you," Jiraiya blustered.
"I'll show you respect when you show me you deserve it, and I am two years older than you." Kotone turned her attention towards the Sandaime who quickly straightened under her attention. The instant she looked away, Jiraiya lost control of himself and rushed towards her with a kunai drawn. As soon as he stepped within arms' reach, she spun on her heel, barely jostling Minato, grabbed his wrist, turning the kunai away from her, darting inside of his retaliating fist, twisting the kunai out of his hand and slamming him on his back. She dropped one knee into his gut and pressed the tip of the kunai against his jugular. "I suggest you leave before you cause any irreparable damage, Jiraiya," she stood up quickly and backed away, turning her attention back towards the Hokage.
Jiraiya left quickly but before he left the room he sent an ugly look at the woman's back. Out of patience, Kotone threw the kunai and hit the doorframe a centimeter away from his eye.
Kotone cordially addressed the Hokage without any hint of hard tone she used to address Jiraiya. "I am Namikaze Kotone, and I would like to thank you for allowing my son to remain in your village while we attempted to settle the fighting between the two halves of my clan. I apologize if I was out of line in scolding your shinobi. Now, what do you wish to speak with me about?"
"Feel free to withhold whichever details you wish, but I would like at least some idea of what brought you here before I consider your request to remain in Konoha for any extended period of time."
"I will tell you what I can, but Masao is the only one of us who knows the full story, so you will have to ask him to fill in what I don't know."
"Where's To-san?" Minato interrupted, squirming in her arms.
"I'll tell you later, Mina-chan, why don't you take a nap?"
The Sandaime motioned for her to sit in one of the chairs in front of his desk. She took it gratefully, maneuvering Minato to lie across her lap, holding his head over her heart and covering his eyes to block out the light of the room. His fists clutched her shirt, but he settled comfortably against her, his breaths slowing almost immediately.
"Just after Minato was born, our previous clan leader died unexpectedly. Because Masao was his firstborn son, he was the first considered for the position, but for reasons he refused to share, he declined the position. With neither Minato nor I able to take the position, for obvious reasons, the title went to Masao's younger brother, Osamu."
"You were considered for clan head?"
"I was next in line for the position, but no matter how powerful of a shinobi or how great a medic Masao is, he cannot take care of a young child, especially a newborn, for the amount of time I would be taken away from my family while holding the position. The mantle moved to Osamu. For a year and a half, he hid his plans for taking over the hidden villages. It wasn't until a few months ago that he began to train children of the clan in shinobi arts. In our clan, children are not considered candidates for position as shinobi until they are at least ten years old, but it is often much later before they are allowed to join. He recruited all except two of the youngest children, Minato and a girl, forcing them to train in a specialized program. While this would be acceptable in a time of war, to leave the elderly and children to defend the village while the shinobi left to fight, during a time of peace, it is unacceptable. Masao confronted the clan council about it but the overwhelming majority of them agreed with Osamu's actions, even though it was their children placed in the program. Masao discovered Osamu to be blackmailing them. Shortly after this, word of Minato's abilities as a sensor spread throughout the clan, leading Osamu to attempt to force Masao into placing Minato in the program. That was the final straw and Masao shared everything with the rest of the clan. Surprisingly, half of the clan genuinely supported him. The village leader sided with Osamu, forcing us to flee in order to avoid a fight and trapping the children in the crossfire."
"How many children came with your group?"
"Three. A boy beginning in Osamu's program and his parents managed to extract him before it was too late. There was another girl, but she was killed during one of the fights between Masao and Osamu. Minato is the third child."
"And the current situation?"
"Both Osamu and Masao are severely injured, and everyone else is mostly healed, thanks to Masao's efforts. I don't know how long until they attempt to attack again, but if you grant us shelter, we will defend the village from them. I will not hide the fact that we are desperate. We have little choice but to accept almost any terms you have to offer and are unwilling to threaten you into acting in our favor. We don't have anything to trade except information, most of which is useless to you. We have no choice but to trust you not to abuse that desperation."
A long silence interrupted her and Kotone turned her attention towards Minato while she waited for the Hokage's decision. While he watched her carefully, the Sandaime noticed how perfectly relaxed the woman held herself, tensing only against threats towards her son, exactly the same way as his father.
Kotone shifted Minato onto her shoulder and gently probed the scars left over from the shuriken.
"They healed nicely," she commented softly, smiling softly at her son. "He hasn't slept well here, has he?" She asked Sakumo.
He shook his head in response.
Pulling her legs up onto the chair, she turned her face towards the ceiling, ignoring the eyes watching her every move.
"Do you wish to remain in Konoha permanently?"
Kotone jerked her gaze towards the Hokage in surprise. "Yes," she answered softly, then corrected herself. "That is certainly and unexpected, and welcomed, proposition but I cannot in good faith tie this village to my clan until the war we are fighting is over. I won't risk anyone but us becoming targets."
The Hokage studied her carefully. Unconsciously, she pulled Minato closer. "I will prepare the paperwork for you to remain in the village as refugees until your war is over. I expect you to defend against threats from the other half of your clan. It is customary to assign shinobi as escorts, since you have already displayed trust in Hatake-san, I will assign him to you for security purposes."
After a few minutes of pleasantries, Sakumo escorted Kotone out the door and back towards the hospital.
Minato woke briefly on the way back, but quickly settled. As soon as they entered the room Sakumo found the clan in, a voice screamed his name from the room where medics worked on Masao. "Hatake! Go get that bitch of a medic head down here this instant! I have no idea what's going on!"
In an instant, Sakumo shunshined up to the office of the head medic and they returned with her a minute later. The grey-haired old woman hobbled into the room slamming the door behind her, cutting off all sound from the room.
The clan still sat in the circle, meditating.
After a minute, the grey-haired woman emerged from the room and waved Kotone over. "What's the problem?" she asked, frowning.
"The healing chakra isn't having any effect on him; do you have any explanation for why?"
Kotone sighed and turned to shove Minato into Sakumo's arms. "I know exactly why, let me in there and I can fix it."
"You're a medic?"
"No, our clan has special ways of manipulating chakra, all of us know how to make it so standard medic-nins can heal."
"And you didn't think to speak up sooner?"
"It's never been a problem before!"
"Come on," The grey-haired woman gestured. "My name is Haruki. Tsunade is the girl in charge of the healing."
Kotone hurried into the room and took a place by Masao's side, opposite of Tsunade. "Unless you can do something to help, get out, lady," Tsunade snapped.
"I'll explain everything later, but in order for your chakra to heal, it has to be manipulated in an entirely different frame of mind. If you channel your chakra through my hands, that problem will be immediately neutralized."
"Do you have any idea what kind of damage that will do to you?"
"I'll heal, but he won't if you don't do what I say."
"Fine, it's on your head," Tsunade snapped and grabbed Kotone's hands, eyes widening as she did as she was instructed. "This shouldn't be possible!"
"Just finish the healing!" Kotone gritted out, repressing the instinct to jerk away as Tsunade's chakra burned into her hands and tore away her chakra for the healing.
"It's healing three times as fast!"
Kotone squeezed her eyes shut, fighting her instinct to jerk away.
"That's good enough, he can heal on his own now," Tsunade yanked her hands away and rushed around the hospital bed to catch Kotone as she stumbled backwards, exhausted. "Dammit, lady, why didn't you tell the medics your condition?"
"I'm fine, Tsunade-san."
"'Fine' does not apply to you right now. You've been living off chakra for at least two weeks. Is the rest of your clan in the same state?"
"Tsunade-san, we've done this before and you can't do anything to help—" Kotone grabbed Tsunade's wrist as she knelt and began to fuss with a bandage around a nasty cut on Kotone's ankle. In retaliation, Tsunade flicked her fingers and chakra-controlled ropes burst from the chair and jerked Kotone back against the chair.
"Listen, woman, I don't know where you're from, why you're here, or who you even are," Tsunade growled, her temper breaking through her patience. "All I know is that there are people here who need medical attention and if the rest of them, who I presume to be your family or clan, they have the same attitude for taking care of themselves as you do." The ropes vanished. "I do not take kindly to patients telling me what they do or don't need. This is my wing of the hospital and I'm in charge. Do as I say or I'll make you. Am I clear?"
Kotone stood up and responded softly and clearly. "I've worked alongside my husband as support and defense for nearly ten years. While I may not be a medic, I know more about medical Ninjutsu and have more firsthand experience than any teenager such as yourself can ever dream of. I intimately know the limits of medical Ninjutsu, and I know my clan better than you. If that's not credential enough for you to listen when I tell you there is nothing more you can do for us, I'll remind you that my clan uses chakra differently and even the best techniques you know cannot help us, as you noticed a few minutes ago. Be careful with your assumptions, young lady, and keep control of that temper of yours."
Tsunade balled her fists.
"I have no problem with teaching you a way you can heal my clan mates without my help, but it will have to wait for later."
Tsunade's face lit up.
"For now, the only thing you can do to hurry along our recovery is to find my clan mates a safe place to sleep."
"I'll make sure you all are brought meals and bedding to sleep here until the Hokage can arrange something more permanent." Tsunade all but skipped out of the room, her ponytail bouncing with her excitement.
"There isn't much that can get that girl so excited," Haruki commented. "But she does have a point; at least let us do what we can about your injuries without jutsu."
Kotone sighed in capitulation, sitting back down slowly as Sakumo cracked open the door, Minato still asleep in his arms.
"You can open the door, there isn't any danger," the old woman permitted. "Line up the rest of the clan to be properly tended to before they are allowed to sleep and possibly compound problems."
Kotone nodded her agreement, mostly for the benefit of the clan member hovering at Sakumo's shoulder. Holding out her arms for Minato, Sakumo complied and gently laid the child in Kotone's lap, curiously assessing Masao's condition, his face paler than normal.
Her burnt hands barely bothered her as she ran her fingers through Minato's hair, strengthening her grip on the boy as if someone stood ready to take him away. Kneeling slowly, Haruki changed the bandages around Kotone's ankle before moving outside to care for the others. With careful watch, Sakumo stood in the doorway.
"You have questions," Kotone stated, gesturing towards the stool at the end of the hospital bed. "I won't answer what you don't ask."
Sakumo watched her curiously as he approached and moved the stool so he could sit with his back to the wall. "Who could have put Masao-san in this state?"
"His brother. The man is the most powerful of us all. Why are you so surprised someone can?"
"I've faced too many Namikaze to not be surprised when one of you gets hurt. When he fights, it's like…" Sakumo trailed off searching for the right word.
"Like he's a god?" Kotone finished after a long silence.
"He can create things with a turn of his hand, he always seems to know what's about to happen. No one knows much about Taki and only the best shinobi know anything about the Namikaze in general."
Kotone frowned, "That's strategically foolish."
"But what other option do we have to preserve morale?"
Rubbing his face against Kotone's shoulder, Minato woke, his small hands clinging tightly to Kotone's clothes.
"Did you have a nice nap, Mina-chan?" Kotone asked, holding the boy even tighter.
Nodding quickly, Minato squirmed as Kotone rubbed the grit out of his eyes. "I missed you Ka-san."
"Why aren't you opening your eyes?"
"But if I open them you'll go away!"
"No, I won't, Mina-chan, I'm gonna stay with you all day."
"How?"
"I heard you caused some trouble for Sakumo-san."
"So?"
"True. What kind of trouble did you cause?"
"I hit all the ANBU with ink when the Hokage visited. Then I hit Sakumo-san and the Hokage but I was careful, I didn't get ink on anything else!"
Kotone raised her eyebrows in surprise, and then formed a hand seal so quickly Sakumo barely registered the movement. "There's a bottle of ink and a quill under my chair, get it and hit Sakumo-san again but don't get the ink on anything else. You have ten minutes."
Minato grinned and immediately began to try to wriggle his way out of Kotone's grip, giggling. Sakumo watched, surprised, unsure of Kotone's motive behind the challenge and unsure if Minato could actually succeed. "That's not fair! You're bigger than me!" Minato huffed after ten seconds of wriggling. Kotone tweaked his nose in response and Minato took the opportunity to swing his legs off the chair and wrap them around Kotone's good leg, quickly followed by both arms.
In retaliation, Kotone tickled his sides, forcing him to let go and hauled him back into her lap. "Figure it out, Mina-chan."
Minato huffed and jumped up to wrap his arms around Kotone's head, blocking her vision. Sakumo's eyes widened as Minato's chakra moved towards the ink jar beneath Kotone's chair and the quill flung a drop of ink at Sakumo's face. His eyes widened in surprise as the boy fell backwards to see if his idea worked, trusting his mother to catch him before his head struck the ground.
"I did it!" He giggled as Kotone started to laugh at his shocked expression.
"It was a chakra control exercise," Sakumo concluded, wiping the spot of ink off his cheek.
"Nothing more than a game, I expected you to at least stop the ink."
"A child shouldn't be able to control their chakra to that degree."
Kotone frowned. "Most children shouldn't, but our children have so much chakra that it becomes dangerous for others if they don't have any control over it, especially as they grow older and gain more. I assume he's taken to meditating every night in order to release enough energy to sleep, but there's more effective ways to solve the problem. One of those is puzzles forcing him to use his chakra to solve, like the one I just gave him."
"I see," Sakumo responded turning his attention towards Minato, hanging upside-down fidgeting with his mother's shoes.
"No you don't, but you'll figure it out soon," Kotone raised her legs sharply, throwing Minato into the air with a surprised yelp, his hands brushing the ceiling, then screaming with laughter as pale gold chakra attached to the back of his head, the middle of his back and his ankles to swing him around the room. He screamed with laughter and showed more energy than Sakumo ever saw.
Sakumo's eyes widened at the impossibility of what Kotone could do before noticing that the chakra was not Kotone's but Masao's.
"To-san!" Minato exclaimed waving his arms as he sailed around the room again before settling on the bed beside Masao. Kotone slumped backwards. Sakumo stood up and left quietly while Minato jabbered incoherently. Just before Sakumo closed the door, Masao caught his gaze and nodded slowly. Sakumo felt strangely happy he pleased the man.